1.1 The Reason
for Algilez

The aims of Algilez are quite simple – to provide an
auxiliary language for world use, that is simple to use and quick to learn, that
is unambiguous in use and, by basing the vocabulary and format as much
as possible on English, providing a language is most familiar to the
maximum number of people.

1.2 Making a
new language - what features would you be looking for to make it as easy
as possible?

There are several features that most people would
agree are desirable in a language in order to make learning it as easy
as possible:-

Regular tense endings for all verbs -
no irregular verbs

Consistent spelling - each sound to
have a unique alphabet character.

Consistent pronunciation - each
individual alphabet character to be pronounced the same.

Single meanings for each root word.

Short words - single syllable root
words if possible.

Use compound words (made of existing
root words) when possible - to avoid unnecessary new words

Some other features may be more debatable but are
likely to assist rather than hinder language learning:-

A syntax (word order) based on Subject
Verb Object - consistent with most major languages of the world

Vocabulary based on condensed English
language words - for maximum familiarity with most learners.

Adjectives & adverbs to follow the
words they describe/modify - the key nouns come first

Root words to be combined as
prefixes/suffixes

1.3 The main
features of Algilez:

Algilez follows the word order
convention of English, Chinese etc (i.e. Subject, Verb, Object) but
with a simpler grammar and vocabulary

The vocabulary is based on 'condensed'
English, providing maximum familiarisation for those people who have
some knowledge of English as a first or second language and short
simple words to learn for those who don't.

The whole vocabulary is logically
categorised by the meaning of the words.

There is a single meaning for each word.

Words are pronounced as they are spelt.

The grammar is 'logical', in that
qualifiers (adjectives & adverbs) follow the word they are
qualifying, enabling the listener to begin to understand the meaning
of each sentence as it is spoken or read, rather than having to wait
until the end.

International conventions for numbers
and Latin based plant & animal genus names are retained (but
transcribed into phonetic Algilez words).

The optional Algilez alphabet, using a
single symbol matched to each sound, overcomes many of the
difficulties associated with the well used, but far from uniform,
Roman alphabet. For further details see
Algilez Alphabet.2

1.4
International Conventions

No auxiliary language can really be started on a clean
sheet of paper.There are
already too many international conventions that are so well established
that it would be impossibly disruptive to change them (e.g. a decimal
number system written in descending figures from left to right, a Latin
based genus naming system for animals and plants etc, both of which are
retained in Algilez).

However, there are other aspects, such as the use of a
new alphabet, that would rapidly repay the investment of time needed to
learn it by elimination of the confusion resulting from the multiple
sounds possible for conventional Roman letters.An optional alphabet has been produced for Algilez.See
Algilez Alphabet.

Previous artificial languages have used a variety of
mainly European based languages as the source of their vocabulary.
Some have used Latin. Esperanto uses a mixture of English, French
and German. The only true international language used today is
English and therefore it makes more sense to use English as the
vocabulary basis for a world language than any other. This does
not mean that English words have always been used directly but that
English words have been modified, by condensing them as much as
possible, into short, single syllable words that are intended to be
easier and quicker to learn.

The process of condensing the words has been done to
simplify the vocabulary, the spelling and the learning. Why use a
two, three or even four syllable word when the meaning can be expressed
clearly and uniquely in a single syllable, two or three letter word.
To the native speakers of Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Arabic etc, a
vocabulary based on Latin will have hardly any elements that would be
familiar. Anyone with a smattering of English would be more likely
to find something familiar with a Algilez vocabulary.

At first sight it might appear that there is very
little recognisable English within Algilez. I can sympathise with
that view since, many of the 'core' verbs such as 'to be', 'to have',
'to see', 'to go' etc have been taken back to the simplest possible root
base and then had the tense affixes etc added to them. Many other
English words have had to be condensed into rather unfamiliar Algilez
root words. This is a reflection of the large number of English
words of totally different meaning that use similar word formation (just
look in a dictionary and see how many English words begin with
'con...'). When a suitable English word was not easily available,
then a word from another language was chosen. Nevertheless, it is
hoped that the majority of Algilez words, if not immediately obvious,
should be easier to remember once the origin is known.

No single natural language is perfect.
By definition, a natural language has probably evolved over many
hundreds of years and will usually be a reflection of the
culture that created it. All languages have features that,
when compared with others, might be considered to be better or
worse - e.g. more or less easily learnt, more or less logical,
grammatically simple, ambiguous etc. In developing
Algilez, I have looked at many features of existing natural
languages and used what I consider to be the best of those e.g.:

Elimination of definite and indefinite
articles from Japanese and Russian

'Ke' sound for questions
from Spanish 'que' and 'ka' from Japanese

Reduced number of vowels
from Spanish and Japanese

Use of regular affixes for grammatical
changes from Esperanto

Recommended word order
from English

Flexible word order possibilities
from English

Hence the development of Algilez has taken
into consideration features from a number of other major world
languages, as well as English, which should help to show the
truly international origins of Algilez.

This link will take you to a PDF file that provides a comparison between
28 different features of Algilez and English, covering the phonemes
(sounds), spelling and grammar. The comparisons are done for 23
different languages or language groups and show where the
simplified forms in Algilez will reduce the learning time required
compared to English.

Since Algilez does not have grammatical inflexions, a
totally free word order is not possible (i.e. one in which the same
words can be ordered in a sentence in any way). However Algilez
can accommodate any word order provided that the correct prepositions
and conjunctions are used.

4.2 Omission of Tense Marking

Tenses are formed with the root word and the suffixes
'oz', 'ez' & 'uz'
(past, present and future) with 'iz' for
continuous & infinitive and 'az' for
conditional. It is possible to use Algilez with an infinitive verb
marker only and apply tense markers only when required e.g.

Yesterday I go to shops

ozde me giz u xopi

Today I go to school

ezde me giz u skul

Tomorrow I go to friend's
house

uzde me giz u xo frena

4.3 Omission of Verb
Marking

Verbs are automatically identified by their tense
marker. It is possible to construct sentences using the noun
(substantive) form of the word instead of the verbal form e.g.

Yesterday I go to shops

ozde me go u xopi

Today I read a book

ezde me rid buk

Tomorrow I drive to London

uzde me kãr u London

4.4 Elimination of Agglutanives

The addition of prefixes and suffixes to words can be
eliminated by the use of them as prepositions instead. The meaning
for these sentences is identical. However in Algilez the same root
is generally used both in the prefix/suffix and the preposition.
The choice of which to use then becomes a matter of which sounds best in
the sentence.

Some years ago I had an exchange of notes with
another designer of artificial languages and I enclose an updated copy
of some of the points that we discussed in relation to his ideas for
language design. Although I have not included the original
questions or comments made, the answers are fairly self-explanatory and
may help further explain the reasoning behind how Algilez has developed.

1.Analytic grammar - strict word order - SVO syntax

1.1.
Algilez obviously has inflections, which makes it synthetic. It
also has a fairly strict word order and a number of features
that are analytic! In my view it is unnecessary to get hung up
over these definitions and look at what works best. English is
also a peculiar mixture of different forms and still works well.I think that a combination of these forms (as in Algilez)
will work and that to try and define the ideal form and then
mould the language around it is unnecessarily restrictive.

1.2.
I strongly agree that SVO is the best word order. I find it the
most logical and since it is fortunately used in English and
Chinese, I am happy to stay with it.

1.3.
Similarly, I think that a rigid word order is also best, but
with rules for providing alternative forms.

E.g. John gave the ball to
Tom = Jon gevoz bøl u Tom

The ball was given to Tom
by John = Bøl adgevoz u Tom ad Jon

The second example
expresses the exact same meaning as in English. It requires an
extra affix and extra word compared with the first example but
still works well, with clarity of meaning.

2.No case inflections, i.e. no genitive or plural noun
inflections

2.1.
I have used a case ending for adjectives and adverbs but I
remain open to persuasion that they are unnecessary!E.g. Blueness, blue ball = blu, bøl
blua

2.2.
I have used a possessive prefix 'av'
/ suffix 'va' which is equivalent
to the English - 's

E.g. Tom's book =
buk avTom = buk av Tom = buk Tomva

I have no strong feelings
as to whether this should remain a separate word or be a prefix
to the noun (the suffix version will definitely remain a
suffix). It needs a little more thought and discussion.

2.3.
I also use an optional ending for plural

E.g. Dog, dogs, two dogs =
kanis, kanisi, du kanis (i.e. the
plural suffix is not required if the noun is already marked as
plural by having a number or other qualifying word associated
with it).

I am satisfied that this
works and prefer to keep it.

3.No verb declension or inflection, including
imperative/infinitive

3.1.
Verbs are indicated by a tense suffix. This includes an
infinitive (which, if tenses are to be included, seems to be a
necessary part of the package - I remain open to argument that
this is not so, but in most of the translations I have done so
far e.g. where the infinitive is used in English, an infinitive
still appears necessary in Algilez).

3.2.
A suggestion to avoid the using any imperative
(order/instruction) form.

A direct form of the future tense is used as the imperative, e.g. Heguz! Heguz yu! = Come here! You come
here!

The imperative is used
widely in most languages and any IAL must provide a form that
expresses it. Algilez is intended to aid with
international communication, not to try to modify social
behaviour through restricted use of language!

4.All tenses/moods/voices shown by auxiliaries

4.1.
In Algilez, tenses are shown by affixes

4.2.
Moods & voices can be shown by auxiliaries but these can be
assimilated to become compound verbs.

6.1.
In Algilez, both adjectives and adverbs are denoted by 'a'
suffix and follow the word they are qualifying, i.e. headwords
generally precede their qualifiers.There is no logic in having some qualifiers preceding and
some following.I
cannot see any great learning problems here.

7.Form of negation and omission of copula

7.1.
Algilez has 'no' (pronounced as in
not) which can be used as the word 'no' in English or as
a verb prefix.

7.2.
I have no objection in principle to copula omission but it would
only work in very simple Algilez expressions e.g. John is hot.The book is red = Jon
hitoma, buk reda

8.Use of anaphora rather than correlatives for recursion

8.1.
I don't understand this one.Algilez uses correlatives.

9.No rules re prosody

9.1.
Generally agreed although in some compound words it may be
necessary to stress the main root word if it has prefixes and
suffixes.

10.Single head-word for interrogative

10.1.Agreed.
In Algilez, I have used 'K'
(pronounced 'ke' as in kettle) which is intended to reflect the
word 'que' used in many Latin languages and 'ka' in Japanese.

11.53 Phonemes, Use of Upper & Lower case letters

11.1.
53 is far too many.
Algilez has 27, each expressed by a single alphabet
letter. Upper case letters are the same as lower case,
just a little larger and bolder. The majority of alphabet
letters are the same as the normal Latin alphabet, with others
taken from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

11.2.However,
I agree that scope for additional phonemes may be useful, but
not necessarily as part of the IAL.The Algilez alphabet has scope for being extended to
express all of the phonemes in the IPA.This would enable a simple logical font to be used and
for the majority of phonemes in existing natural languages to be
covered.This could
be useful for translations and teaching purposes.

11.3.The
Latin
alphabet has far too many inconsistencies to be a logical choice
for an international language. This is because different
languages use different phonemes (sounds) for the same letters.
The only practical way out of this is to use Latin characters
for those phonemes that are generally accepted internationally
(i.e. the letters b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, z) and
to provide new symbols for the other characters.
The Algilez alphabet does this, using International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) characters where possible and creating a few
new characters where necessary.

12.Consonant Script, omission of vowels

12.1.Any
written script that requires an element of guesswork is a dead
loss.The purpose of
an IAL is to be easily and quickly understood, not to save ink.
If you say it, then you must write it.

13.Shorthand

13.1.This
is possible to a certain extent in Algilez, but only because use
is made of single-letter root words, e.g.
m=me (I/me);
y=ye
(yes); k=ke (question),
o (from); u
(to); e (at).The consonants m, y &
k are pronounced me (as in met), ye
(as in yes) and ke (as in kettle), so the alphabet names for the
letters are the same as the words used if the letters are on
their own.

13.2.
I think that using short roots for the most commonly used words (as I
have tried to provide in Algilez) is better than an artificial
shorthand.

14.Vocabulary Selection from multiple languages

14.1.I
have based Algilez on English as far as possible and made occasional used of roots
from other languages.

14.2.The
idea of using words that are taken from a variety of different
languages is to make sure that no major nation feels that they
have been ignored.I suspect the concern is more of a political and
psychological one than one of ease of learning.If I had to choose what language would suit me best in a
new IAL vocabulary, I would naturally choose English (since it
is my own language).
My second choice would be French.Why? Because it is the only other language that I am
familiar with and I would rather make use of the little French
vocabulary that I know than have to learn a new vocabulary from
scratch.In my view
the political aspects of having a multinational vocabulary
misses the point – I have no doubt that the majority of people
who are prepared to learn a IAL which is not based on their own
language, would prefer to use the vocabulary of the second
language that they already know best – English.

14.3.However,
I have no objection in principle to making greater use of root
words from other languages.The problem is that Algilez has developed to a stage
where almost any change has a domino effect upon other root
words.5

11) Pronunciation.

The alphabet consists of 21 consonants
and 7 vowels (i.e. two new vowels added to the Roman alphabet).

The differences between the usual
English pronunciation of Roman alphabet letters is 'c' as in
cheese, 'x' as in
shed, 'ã' as in far, 'ø' as in fort.
'q' is not used for Algilez words but retained for the 'th'
sound (as in
three) for proper names etc in other
languages.

Every word is pronounced as it is
spelt.

In compound words the accent should be
on the root word syllable.

12) Names of people, places, currencies etc remain the same as
their original languages.

Natural growth in the vocabulary is absolutely necessary and
inevitable.
However not all other changes may be desirable.
Changes to pronunciation or spelling will cause a degree of
irregularity which will add to the burden of learning. Changes
to the grammar and to the meaning of words may cause ambiguity. In English, having words with multiple meanings is
often confusing and one of the
things that makes learning English as a foreign language quite
difficult.

New words

It will not be possible for Algilez to be launched with a
vocabulary that includes a translation of every word, from every
language of the world (including English). This means that existing words will
continue to be added to Algilez for many years, as well as new
words (for new concepts, ideas, plants, animals, technology,
specialist professions
etc). This is fine and may lead to opportunities for using
the Algilez language in ways that people may not do in their native tongues.

Here is an example. Someone who speaks
English (such as me) is unlikely to create a word that
corresponds to the Swedish verb orka
(roughly 'have the energy to ...') compared to someone who
speaks a language such as Swedish or Finnish (jaksaa) where such
words exist. There is clearly no single English language
word that is equivalent and hence we have to use the phrase 'have
the energy to ...'.

I don't know exactly what the Algilez word might
be (possibly 'vigøk' or 'vigid'
from the words 'vig'
(meaning 'vigour, energy, keenness') and either 'øk'
(meaning 'effect, result, outcome') or, more likely,
'id'
(meaning 'action resulting from'). Once created, the new
compound word could be used as a noun, verb, adjective or adverb as
required, simply by adding the normal affixes:-

'He had the energy to climb the mountain' -Il vigidoz klimiz montem

The creation of such new words would be an asset
to the language and all of its users.

Changes to word spelling or pronunciation

If you consider the words for 'Yes' in major European languages
- Ja, Oui, Si etc. these have not changed for hundreds of years.
Yet in English we have evolved the word 'Yeah'. Why?
Probably because 'Yeah' requires a fraction less effort to say
than forming the additional sound '...ess' at the end of the
word. The saving of time and effort is minimal, yet still
it has happened. This will be true of many other words
that can be easily changed or shortened.

I have therefore tried to anticipate the natural changes that
are likely to occur and to reduce the need for them by making
the pronunciation and spelling as simple and regular as
possible. The Algilez word for yes is 'Ye'.
If anyone really wants to shorten that (and succeeds) then good luck to them!

Where users of the language find that a word can be changed to
become shorter, more easily spoken or less likely to be
misunderstood, without causing any
other problems then that is absolutely fine and I
welcome suggestions for change. [See
Algilez new words]

Changes to grammar

One of the key tests in Algilez is for ambiguity - could the
sentence be misunderstood or misinterpreted? For example
in British English we would say 'She wrote to him'. In American English it might be
'She wrote him'. Here there is the possibility of
interpreting the sentence as meaning either 'She wrote
to him' or 'She wrote
"Him".' But both British
and American English would use 'She wrote him a letter'. In Algilez the three
examples would be 'El ritoz
u il', 'El
ritoz "il", and 'El
ritoz letu il'.

In another example 'She said thatthey are here' and 'She said they are here' (El
coz ca uli bez he, El coz
uli bez he). In the second case, which is very
common in English, there no ambiguity even though a word is
'missing'. Since one of the purposes of Algilez is to be as
compact as possible and avoid unnecessary words, then it would
appear that the removal of 'that' (ca/xa)
should not cause any problems. In most cases like this, I
believe that the users of the language should see what works for
them and then for the rules to be adjusted accordingly (in order
that new learners don't learn out-of-date grammar).

Changes to the meaning of words and dual meanings

I have no particular issue with the meanings of words being
changed. However it does need to be done in an agreed,
orderly way, in order that the changes are widely communicated
and become known to (and agreed by) all users of the language.
Quite how that can be achieved, I await with interest to find
out!

The use of dual meaning for words however is something that I
am strongly opposed to. It causes ambiguity and adds considerably
to the difficulty of learning. In Algilez, I hope that the
way in which the vocabulary is formed will avoid this sort of
problem.

How long can we go on changing things?

There has to come a time when we can say that the development
phase of Algilez is complete and give it a pat on the back and
sent to fend for itself in the wide world.
However, as mentioned above, the
creation of new Algilez words by speakers of different natural languages
will continue for many years. This
might result in some confusion (such as one user
creating 'vigøk'
and another creating 'vigid',
(both meaning 'having the energy to ...'). Whether
some sort of central repository of vocabulary and grammar would
be worthwhile or even necessary, in order to avoid an anarchy of
irregular changes, is something for the future.

Algilez was formerly know as Gilo.
Although Gilo was a short and simple name, unfortunately many
other people thought the same and a search for 'Gilo' on the
internet produced too many links to different sources.
Algilez (when it was chosen) was unique.

Algilez (as well as being a play on my own name) also, at one
time, meant 'All begin listening'. Unfortunately, as the
language has developed, the word for 'begin' has changed from 'gi'
to 'gã'.
So, at the moment, Algilez is just a name and doesn't mean
anything.